Sunday, December 27, 2015

Want to buy a used Humvee?

The phone number is on the back window.
It was out on the TTP cruise yesterday.

A couple of bright ideas.


Sunday, December 20, 2015

Wish they had these in Australia.


Falcon-Knight.

Reference previous post.
This is Glen's 1927 Falcon-Knight. It uses the Knight sleeve valve engine as did the slightly more up-market Willys-Knight.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Back on eBay.

No bids yet. Lots of watchers. Buy it now for $60,000.

Pellandini barn find.

Not sure when.

Not a bad innings.

Guy Buckingham dies at 94

Guy Buckingham made a name in motor sports in Australia, but had begun racing earlier when he lived in the UK. In fact he was a clockmaker in Buckinghamshire who became an engineer for the RAF in WW2. He moved to Australia in 1952 where he decided to do things slightly different and set up his own workshop, soon known as Nota Cars. ‘Nota’ stood for ‘motorcar' pronounced as ‘notacar’ by Buckinghams then-baby son Chris. In Parramatta, just outside Sydney, Guy built various racing and hill climbing specials, mostly one-offs. One of them was rear-powered by a Mini-engine as early as 1962 - more here. By 1968 he'd build another Special, based on a crashed Morris Cooper S. Chris had designed it and it was named Nota Type 4, but was soon called ‘Nota Fang’ to its sharp appearance! Replicas were sold for $1999 and were soon a hit under Australian racing enthusiasts. The Buckinghams sold 64 Fangs before Guy returned to England in the early 1970s. There he introduced the Fang in the UK in 1972, but after the demonstrator was flattened by a Frysian bull, Buckingham Sr. decided to stop his exploits as a motor manufacturer. Chris continues to run Nota Engineering to this very day. Guy was reunited some two years ago with one of the first cars he designed, built and raced back in 1954, which was known as 'Arnold'. It was the first time he had seen the car since the late 50's.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Evolution.

I suppose you could do this with any old snap but just take this one for example.
So much changes over the years especially when you become elderly like me. There are 4 Bolwells in the picture and the only one still around the place is Garry and Rose's yellow Nagari and even that hasn't been seen fully clothed for some time.

The black 7 is the Chev powered one of the late Tony Opie before it became the Fosters blue roadster. That car was destroyed in a bushfire that swept through Kangarilla.

The red/orange Nagari of the late Gus Safranko, briefly raced by Alex Tsakmakis, disappeared into Tasmania many years ago.

The silver Nagari of the late Leah Low met its fate in a crash at Sandown, only to emerge later as a red Fibrecar roadster, which, in turn, was also crashed and written off in Sydney, the remains being picked over back here in Adelaide. The wreck of the silver coupe was eventually put back together in Queensland and most likely shares its identity with the red roadster.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Ice racing.

Not something you see a lot of around this way.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Later history of Dennis' Mk.7 - maybe

Peter Marr, in Newcastle, sent the following....

Way back in 1996 we bought B7 327K from Qld. It had had the roof cut of but the conversion had never been finished.
At some point this car had been really nicely done with lots of nice, well thought out, touches inside.
When I got it it had a strong 202 with an Aussie 4 speed in it. I didn't see anything that made me think that it might have been raced at some point.
However, the interesting thing about it is, the underside of the bonnet showed where at some point it had had a hole in the drivers side that had been repaired. It looked like the bonnet had not had a hole or bulge on the passenger side until much later.
Later on it had had a bulge fitted to the passenger side.

I ended up selling the car without really doing anything to it, to a young bloke at Muswellbrook. He ordered a new roof for it from Don but eventually sold it to Mick Day at Narrandera who had the roof fitted to it and got it repainted. Mick eventually sold it to his cousin, John Edwards, in Sydney (John was a member of the Bolwell club in Sydney for a few years before this, but eventually ended up with a couple of old Lambo's). John eventually sold the car to another bloke in Sydney who has done a fair bit of work to it. At the moment his name escapes me. Graeme Nicholls would probably able to tell you his name.
When Easter was on in Port Augusta in 2004 (?), on our return trip, the top eye broke of one of the rear coil overs on my yellow Mk7 just before Narrandera. Luckily for me I had fitted decent bump stops so the tyre didn't hit the guard. Mick Day lent me one of the coil overs off this car to enable me to get mine home. It wasn't the correct height but I was able to get the car home ok.
I dont know if B7 327K is the Dennis Burdon car but it might be.
Hope all this helps you

regards
Peter Marr

Monday, December 7, 2015

Saturday, December 5, 2015

How to service a Lada Niva.

It's in the manual.

Blast from the past.

This photo of Ian Smith's goes right back to the early days in Mark 7 terms.
That's Dennis Burdon. You will notice the bonnet bulge is on the driver's side. Dennis ran a Falcon 6. Later he fitted a Wade supercharger which made it even more of a rocketship. Many years later it eventually got a 202 in it and it went to Queensland. Not sure of its history in recent times.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Have a look at this.

Preview YouTube video What It's Like To Drive The Worst Car In The World – Jason DrivesWhat It's Like To Drive The Worst Car In The World – Jason Drives
I posted this to show you the method of raising and lowering the windows, similar to the old Glenelg trams, BUT also exactly the same as the straps and pegs on Norm's old Mark 7.

At last.

I now have an engine cover.

Thanks Graham for the loan of yours to make the mould.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Don't forget the blower.

One thing we didn't get to see in Reid's photos of the Monza and the Repco head in particular was that Wade supercharger.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

God those Auto Unions were big!

Or was it the tiny little Italian bloke driving it?

Need a bigger turbo?

How's this?
Or this?
Or this?
Or this?

Is this for real?

EBAY 9 days to go. No bids yet. Buy it now - $15,000 (NZ).
This historic coach built buck, imported from Europe,was used to build aluminium bodies known as the Pontoon Fender Testa Rossa. 
This beautiful design was produced by Scaglietti in 1958. 
The thick resin composite body is now fully restored, painted in Ferrari Rosso Corsa and attached to a steel frame on dolly wheels for easy manoeuvering. 
Attached are photos of original Ferrari TR 250 at Laguna Seca, USA. 
Buck/shell only for sale.
Can be posted to Australia (how many stamps?).

Monday, November 23, 2015

Identical.

MX-5
Fiat spyder
MX-5 interior
Fiat spyder interior.

Roger tells me the Fiat spyder is built in the Mazda factory in Japan on the MX-5 chassis using heavier sheet metal and a Fiat engine.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Microcars.

I like microcars (the ones I can get into at least) and there was at least 2 of them at this year's Motorclassica. This one-eyed one....
.....and this Trident which I heard described recently as "a 5th grade science project on seed germination".....
.....and the "world's fastest bar stool".
Anyway, this little unit spotted in Bali........
,,,,,do you think it's made from the front of a Hi-ace or something?

And I wonder if this lady talked her way out of a ticket......

It's in the blood.

It's been a long time, but Ranald's just picked up this shell in Sydney today, to be his next race car.

Times have changed.

Beer on tap.
Makes the Giocattolo tool kit look a bit ordinary.